PCAT changes lately?

[staroceanX]

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I've read some of the PCAT threads in the forum and discovered some things that have changed. I bought a Baron's prep book for PCAT and apparently it made the quantitative section like a joke. I have no clue what the Baron's people are doing or thinking. (they had a question asking the area of a square with sides provided...) 😡
Anyhow, I went to Amazon.com and was looking up other prep books and saw Kaplan's prep book. Its description of the quantitative part said the section does not include calculus. (it said 2004-2005 edition)
However, after reading some threads of the PCAT here, I figured that's not true at all. Apparently, people are saying the quantitative part includes calculus and hard calculus too. This is very confusing...should i just not trust any of the prep book? 😕
I logged onto the PCAT site and it said the quantitative section would include calculus... what is happening..? Did PCAT included calculus very recently? Because calculus is a big "something-else" to study for ....
Also people mentioned the writing section, did that start to count toward the score already or did that not?
It's just all the confusion that's bothering me... sorry for being annoying 😛

 

[staroceanX]

ok sorry for the repetition of the calculus problem. Apparently i should just throw my Baron's book out ...lol (if u need something to laugh at, look at Baron's quantatitive section of PCAT) I guess the kaplan sucks too then , since it's quantitative part doesn't include calculus...
But i'm still wondering about the writing part...

 

[DrSassyPants]

If you had a good Calculus teacher, it should not be hard. It's mostly basic derivatives, and a graph or two. Look over the quotient rule too (i forgot how to do that). The calculus just started to be included in the Oct. 23, 2004 test. Don't forget that the chemistry section is now half (or more) organic!

 

[vafcarrot]

Yeah, I think Kaplan just printed a 2004-2005 edition without even checking to see if the test has changed at all. It doesn't even have a section about the essay. Kaplan was useful for an overall review, but have other sources and textbooks nearby. For every chapter, I went and looked something up at least 10 times that I thought sounded fishy and it ended up being wrong in the Kaplan book. If you already know the material, it'll be a good refresher for you. I didn't review any calculus before I went into the test, and it was all pretty much cake. (at least I hope it was cake... I'll get back to you when I get my new set of scores back)